"Ah, but they lack that fundamental spark of free will, I assume by your omission. Then I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer."
"You are twice mistaken, stranger... First: It can choose. Mother simply teaches it how to choose. Second: There is no offer."
As he says these words, malformed ants position themselves around you and the man-creature's three eyes start to glow brighter.
The Humanoid
Man-Creature
Brother Cyrus
Tai Leng
Ants
The three-eyed man-creature seems to concentrate for a moment and soon, greenish gas starts slowly pouring from the holes on the walls. He has no real expression, as what's left of his human face is little more than a dead carcass inhabited by its true self, but even then, you can sense greed, curiosity and malice.
The unknown humanoid screeches such a high pitched sound, you can feel it reverberating on your clothes and bodies.
The blue markings on his body start glowing more intensely.
- - - -
Cyrus kept his silence out of respect for Tai since he was humoring the horrible spider monster, but since the farce was over he steps forth and brandishes his blade.
"Enough."
"Oh benevolent Gods above that grant me thine will to fight
Banish this foul night
Bring forth your divine light
Let shine your righteous MIGHT!
Cyrus swings his blade with little fanfare and a blast of scorching white light utters forth.
His blade scorches the very air of this shadow realm afterwards, still burning white with an intensity that leaves spots in his eyes when he closes them.
A wave of sacred energy floods the room for a second. The ants are confused by the bright golden light for a second, but otherwise completely unaffected.
The humanoid and the man-creature resist the brunt on the impact, but still appear to have been wounded by the wave.
"Let us test your creation against a true paragon of humanity's might, shall we?"
Tai snaps his fists in the general direction of the 3-eyed creature, producing shockwaves of damaging sound to buffet the being.
The creature (barely) evades the first attack, but is hit squarely on the chest by the second one. The resulting wounds don't appear to bother it.
A small number of malformed ants swarms around the Brother Cyrus and Tai Leng. Three of them come after the Paladin, while other two prefer to attack the Tian warrior.
Tai Leng manages to deflect all attacks target at him. Brother Cyrus isn't quite as lucky, and two of the giant insect succeed at wounding him with their pincers.
- - -
The man-creature lets out a grunt of annoyance.
"Ugh... Another zealot relying on the power of uncaring overlords..." he says as he "rolls" the eye in the human husk's mouth. "You should thank me, warrior... After mother's instructions, you'll will finally be free." he says as he stares at Brother Cyrus.
He then grunts again... And his wounds start to immediately heal.
Meanwhile the humanoid rushes at Tai Leng with near supernatural speed.
A low hissing sounds reveals gas is still flowing into the room.
- - -
"Tai! Let's take him down together before the rest!" Cyrus yells as ants move to wall him out and he shifts his attention to the strange three-eyed man-creature.
Gods, please grant this victim peace in the afterlife.
Cyrus slashes high and tries to get the creature's attention on him.
Brother Cyrus hits the humanoid creature with two quick attacks, but realizes his blade doesn't bite quite as deep as it should
"Ugh... Filthy zealot! You're ruining my test! Fight your own opponents!" says the bizarre man-creature.
Tai takes a step tpo the side and then gives him what for.
The giant ants keep biting at your ankles.
However, between your armor and your skill, they fail to cause any damage.
"STOP INTERFERING!" the man-creature shouts in anger at Brother Cyrus. An insectoid limb aim at the Paladin and shoots a dark blueish goo at him.
As soon as the substance touches his skin, Cyrus hears a sizzling sound and is overcome by pain as parts of his chest, shoulder and arm are dissolved.
Meanwhile, the silent humanoid is damaged by your attacks, but still stands, and retaliates with a couple of slams of its own.
To make things worse, the gas cloud slowly filling the chamber is finally dense enough to prove a nuisance...
- - -
Cyrus's wounds begin to rapidly heal as he continues his assault on the humanoid.
Tai Leng takes the inferior genetically modified creature and takes him to Suplex City.
Tai Leng's mighty thews encircle the purple three eyed freak, squeezing him in a bone crushing bear hug before slamming him with great force into the ground!
Brother Cyrus attacks miss their mark, but keep the silent humanoid off-balance long enough for Tai Leng to put it down with a brutal assault.
The creature falls on the ground, unmoving, although still (barely) breathing.
The bizarre man-creature on the wall lets out an exasperated grunt of annoyance.
The malformed ants continue their attack. Three of them against Cyrus, and two against Tai Leng.
Three of them get to inflict some damage...
The bizarre insectoid man-creature groans and speaks with a clearly annoyed tone, its big yellow eye rolls inside the mouth of the humanoid carcass the creature wears.
"Bah... What's the point of having a test if you ruin it with external interference? If you can't deal with an unfinished product and a few bugs without aid from some zealot, you give no merit to your country's biological research." it says while waving one of its lengthy insectoid limbs.
"Just leave before you get in the way of my work..." it adds before turning around and slowly crawling back into the shadows with a listless pace while mumbling to itself.
The ants stand still for a moment, apparently unsure of how to proceed.
"If your creation cannot win a fight in which it outnumbers its enemies and occupies favorable terrain, I'd say that speaks for itself, does it not?"
"An incomplete creation! And the terrain is neutral. There are not raps in this room. Besides... The vermin are insignificant in a battle between worthy warriors." he replies quickly, but then seems to lose his patience.
"Ugh! Nevermind! I don't have time to deal with you... Go find Yrval. The password to his chambers is 'Maldagor'."
Tsk, not happy about letting this creature go, but probably safer to conserve our strength.
"Let's go Tai."
"..I suppose. Let's go try that other door."
The other door is much more inviting... Instead of mucus and claw marks, it has a smooth surface and candle lighting.
Despite being a large piece of stone, it opens with the slightest push, revealing a red-carpeted corridor illuminated by the same floating blue orbs of light, as well as multiple doors. Four at the sides, and one much larger and more imposing at the very end of the corridor.
There are no ants anywhere.
You hear smooth music coming from somewhere in the distance.
"Instantly I am suspicious. Let us proceed with caution." Tai says as he moves slowly into the room.
The music gets louder as you move forward... It's coming from the two doors to your right, which are made of completely smooth stone.
There's also an subtle but undeniable scent of rust, sugar and smoke filling the corridor, although you can't exactly tell where it's coming from.
"Hold on a second, we took quite a few wounds in that scrap." Brother Cyrus pulls a wand from his belt and gives it a few goes.
"Thank you. I didn't feel like we had 5 minutes to spare for my wounds to heal naturally."
"Any objections to my greeting whoever is in this room?"
"Be my guest." Cyrus rolls his shoulder, tucks away the wand back into his belt and readies his sword.
And so Tai opens the door.
The door opens without any difficulty, revealing a rather fancy room.
There's no carpet, but the floor is smooth and clean, just like the walls. Blue flames float in a vaguely chandelier-like formation, illuminating the room. Smooth ambient music comes from an rune printed on the ceiling... Finally, the very center of the room, a 20 ft long oak table holds a veritable feast, with roast pork, fresh fruit and amphoras filled with red wine.
Around the table, four humanoid figures stop eating and look at you.
The one closest to you is a fat man in clothes that might cost as much as most people's houses. His hair is of a graying brown color, much like his beard, which glitters with the grease of the meat he's eating.
Next to him sits a humanoid woman whose body seems to be entirely composed of living darkness. She wears a white mask and skin-tight clothes, which are the only thing that allows you actually identify where her body ends and the surrounding darkness begins.
On the other side of the table, sits a man with dark black hair, crimson-red skin and bright yellow eyes. He wears light armor and carries a heavy ax on his back.
Finally standing up next to the table, apparently having just cut a large piece of meat from the roast pig, there's a tall insectoid creature. It has two powerful pincers and four arms, although the bottom two are much smaller than the top pair. It stares at you with large bulbous segmented eyes.
"Hmm?" says the fat man. "Are you bidders? You're late, you know. The auction should be starting any time now!"
"I am afraid we're late for a lot of festivities apparently. This was an unexpected detour for us. What are we bidding on, exactly?"
Tai really takes things in stride. Although I guess after all the strange things we've seen, it would be hard not to.
Cyrus lets Tai take the lead on this one and busies himself gauging the other bidders on the metaphysical scales of morality.
"What...? How ignorant can you be?" says the fat man.
The shadowy woman says something in a language you can't comprehend. Her words are followed by those of the ax-wielding man.
"She's right. These two probably aren't guests... Just nosy interlopers."
The fat man replies with surprise. "What? Really? This is a really bizarre place to reach by accident."
The red-skinned ax-wielder just shrugs. "Who cares? It doesn't change anything."
The fat man nods in acknowledgement. "I suppose you are right..." - he then turns back to you. Well, dear plebeians... If you want to know, we're bidding on whatever surprise Yrval has in stock this time. Workers, soldiers, tool, weapons, beasts of burden. We'll see. Who knows... Maybe you'll find something to your tastes as well."[/b]
The insectoid creatures cuts and devours another slice of roast meat, unconcerned with your arrival. In fact, none of the four figures seem to have any worry in the world.
"Intriguing. You use weapons, do you not Cyrus? Perhaps you'll find something to your fancy."
Tai settles in to wait.
Cyrus leans over to whisper. "Tai, I don't think hanging around a bunch of people just as likely to kill us is a good idea. Plus I'm not exactly carrying around a lot of gold to spend at an auction. The creature with the ax is also a burning pit to my senses."
Brother Cyrus and Tai Leng stand aside and wait.
The other occupants of the room seem a bit perplexed by your presence, but not concerned. The insectoid creature doesn't even glance at you, and simply goes on eating any and all meats that it can grab.
About 5 minutes go by before the door opens, revealing a yellow-eyed, grey-skinned man so thin it borders on extreme undernourishment.
"The auction will begin now." it says with a deep, dead voice.
"Finally!" says the fat man. "We've been here for almost an hour! And this place is disgusting!"
The shadowy lady replies with a quick, short statement. You can't comprehend the words, but you still get the annoyance conveyed by them.
"Oh... Pardon me, madame. I meant only this disgusting "hive", not the realm surrounding it." he says before quickly turning to the anthropomorphic insectoid and adding: "No offense."
But the creature doesn't seem to have even noticed his words. Much less cared about them.
The red-skinned ax-wielder rolls his eye, stands up with caution and follows the others through the door and down the hall, towards the large double door at the end of the corridor.
Cyrus leans over to whisper. "Tai, I don't think hanging around a bunch of people just as likely to kill us is a good idea. Plus I'm not exactly carrying around a lot of gold to spend at an auction. The creature with the ax is also a burning pit to my senses."
"Perhaps, but maybe it will gives us some more information as to what this place is. Lest we forget, this unnatural realm is blocking travel between two fairly large cities. Don't you think we should see if we can fix that?" Tai whispers back.
The group moves down the corridor and through the big fancy door at its very end. There, light becomes more dim, to the point where you can just barely the silhouettes of anything and anyone not directly next to you.
However, things are quite different on the large stage at the other side of the room. It's surrounded by four semi-directional floating orbs of blueish light, which illuminate the stage's occupants quite clearly.
There are five of them in sight. A half-elf woman, a crippled old man barely able to stand up, a muscular young man carrying a large wooden beam and a lightly armored orc warrior... Behind them stands a 10 ft-tall ogre carrying a massive club.
All five of them stand perfectly still, looking at nowhere with empty eyes.
From the shadows, a powerful voice speaks to you.
"Welcome! I see we have twice as many bidders this time... Good. For this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This will be the last auction we get before returning to development in the Royal Garden. I'm Gillas The Peddler, and I hope you all enjoy our little demonstration."
A localized explosion takes place at the very center of the stage, and when the smoke dissipates, there stands the creepiest halfling you've ever seen. With sickly pale skin, dark shadows all around his eyes, yellowed teeth and a grin that not even a mother could love (or trust).
You overcome the challenges, defeat the enemies and see the Purple Moon Festival... Months go by, you live happily ever after.
Fin.